


Lighter Ties

by triggerfics



Series: The Ties That Bind [5]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Domestic Fluff, Intimacy, M/M, Omega Verse, Trans Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Trans Male Character, Uncle-Nephew Relationship, Uncle/Nephew Incest, ill add more tags as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-11-18 06:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11285463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triggerfics/pseuds/triggerfics
Summary: A compilation of drabbles and one-shots that don't have a set place within the "Ties That Bind" series.





	1. Lazy days [teen+]

**Author's Note:**

> His shirt rides up on his stomach as he rolls around, letting his eyes drift shut. He might just stay like this for all of today.
> 
> His window lock clicks.

Levi sighs breathlessly, rubbing his face against the covers of his bed. It’s been months since he’s had a day to himself like this, to just be able to sit down and relax. His muscles ache and parts of his skin are still tender from where he had been wearing the straps of the gear too much.

He doesn’t have anything to do today and although he welcomes the peace, he misses the structure. At the same time, he doesn’t want to find himself becoming a mini-Erwin. That alpha never stopped working, even on his off days.

Maybe he would go to him after a bit, to make sure he was eating and wasn’t writing himself into an early grave. However, that would mean getting dressed, and he was not in the mood for that today. It was too damn hot in the summer. It was nearly always cool in the underground, surrounded by wet walls of dirt and so far removed from the sunlight. On the surface? Hellfire.

His shirt rides up on his stomach as he rolls around, letting his eyes drift shut. He might just stay like this for all of today.

His window lock clicks.

Levi’s hand is under his pillow before his eyes have even opened, grasping the handle of his knife before the scent hits him and he relaxes immediately.

“Leave your shoes on the window ledge. I’m not cleaning on my day off.”

He hears a softer snicker in response to what he said, accompanied by the shuffling of fabric. His hand leaves the knife, almost pulling out from the cool underside of his pillow before settling back there.

“Why the fuck is it so hot up here?” He asks, finally opening his eyes to look to his right.

“You think it’s hot in here?” His alpha responded, shooting a glance over at him. “Try scaling a damn building.”

And then Kenny is shucking his clothes as well, peeling off the vest and button up shirt from sweat stained skin and making his way over to the bed, losing his pants along the way.

“Well who’s problem is that?” Levi purred, flashing a smirk up at the older man.

He’s expecting a snarky remark of the alpha’s own, perhaps action. He does not expect the man to dead-drop his weight onto him.

Levi’s yelp of surprise bubbles into a purr as Kenny playfully nips at his neck, rolling onto his side off the omega and letting him curl up against him.

“Why the fuck are you so damn sweaty?” Levi groaned, weakly attempting to push him away despite being the one who had curled up to him in the first place.

“Gee,” Kenny replied, rolling his eyes, smirk tugging at his lips. “Wonder why.”

The next few hours are a mess of heat and rolling around and awkward positioning. Levi complains about it being too hot but makes absolutely no move to actually pull away from Kenny completely.

“How clean is the floor?”

Levi snorts, “You’re asking me that?”

And then Kenny rolls them both right off the bed onto the cold stone floor.

“Oh my god, you fucker.”

Kenny doesn’t respond, letting out a deep throat groan and relaxing onto the floor. Levi ends up curled half on top of him, using his chest as a pillow and letting the lower half of his body cool off.

Kenny’s chest is still warm but he finds he doesn’t mind that at all, nuzzling into his skin and inhaling the scent of his alpha. He can hear his heartbeat, finding a level of comfort in that he couldn’t even begin to describe. It doesn’t take much to make him purr, it seems.

He doesn’t know how long they doze for, but there is a moment of hell-raising panic when Hanji slams face first into his locked door, yelling for him.

“What.” Levi yells, keeping his voice calm even as he kicked his alpha under his bed, yanking the bedding off of his bed and throwing it over him.

 _“Shorty!_ Come _on_ open up this cannot wait!”

He smells like Kenny and Hanji will pick up on that and he _cannot_ be questioned about sneaking an alpha into his room. Hanji knows he’s mated, knows that there is one alpha and only one he would curl up to like that and he’s drenched in his scent. He does not need this today, tomorrow, or yesterday.

_‘I’m so sorry.’_

He answers the door reeking of bleach and other cleaning products that even Hanji scrunches their nose and steps away from.

“I knew you liked cleaning products,” They remarked dryly, pinching their nose shut and messing up their voice. “But I didn’t think you liked them _that_ much.”

“Are you sure whatever you wanted can’t wait until tomorrow?”

Hanji cackles as they head off down the hall, teasingly remarking on what his mate might think if they knew he was cheating on them with his bleach.

Levi closes the door and the bedsheet is still for a few seconds before it starts shaking with silent laughter.

“I’m never having sex with you again.”

_“Wait a second, Levi.”_

* * *

Kenny at least has the decency to start the water for him, leaving the omega to strip and wring out the product from his clothes. At least the shirt he was wearing was white. Although his briefs look more polka-dotted now than a straight color. He rinses off in the tub first, making sure all the awful hell-bleach water drained before pulling the stopper to actually let the tub fill up.

The things you do to keep a secret, he muses, collapsing into the hot water and letting it fill up around him.

“At least you know your clothes will be really clean.”

“You are the worst man I have ever met.”

“It’s called optimism, Levi.”

And then Kenny is stripping the rest of the way too and on any other day Levi might try to tease him into starting something, but now all he can do is whine “nooo” as Kenny settles into the tub with him, spilling water over the edge onto the floor.

Despite his whiny complaint, he does nothing to stop Kenny from re-adjusting him into a position where he was half on him again.

“If you let me drown,” Levi sighed, wrapping his arms around him as his eyes started to pull shut. “I’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“Won’t have much of a life left without you in it.”

Levi’s face _burns_ , and not from the heat before nuzzling into Kenny’s chest, hiding his smile against his skin.

It’s evening when he wakes up again, finally starting to cool from the heat. The water had long since gone cold, but he welcomes it even as the temperature starts to drop. Kenny is solid against him, a comforting warmth that never failed to soothe him. Even this far removed from it, he can hear the dining hall loud and bustling, putting the time anywhere from 6 to 7pm.

His stomach grumbles and he huffs in response, slowly removing Kenny’s arms from where they had wrapped around his person to sit back and stretch.

His movement in return wakes up Kenny, the alpha blearily opening an eye to peer at the omega in front of him. Levi reaches back for the stopper, pulling it to drain the tub before standing up and stepping out of it. Kenny doesn’t seem inclined to move yet, letting the water drawn around him as he looked over Levi’s body.  
“Nice.”

Levi threw a towel at him.

“Behave or I won’t get you dinner.”

Levi recognized his mistake before his alpha even spoke.

“Oh,” He purred, that _growl_ in his voice that drove Levi wild.

‘ _God why have you forsaken me.’_

“I know something _I_ want to eat.”

Levi muffled his scream into his towel.

* * *

Levi hates approximately every second of being dressed in uniform, even on his off days he cannot risk his appearance. At his worst he must still represent the best of the Survey Corps, so he will.

He checks in with Erwin first, making sure the alpha had actually taken a break today to get food and something to drink. They make small talk for a bit, discussing schedules for the next few weeks before Levi breaks away to head to the mess hall.

It’s common for him to grab two meals, one for himself and one for Erwin, so it isn’t questioned when he does the same now. He doubts they would question him even if he didn’t eat with Erwin near every day.

But his target is different this time, and he heads back to his room with practiced grace, moving about unnoticed before finally slipping back into his room.

Kenny is back in his bed, relaxed and eyes shut. Levi’s scent is ingrained in his mind, could pick it up surrounded by thousands of others, could trail him anywhere. He doesn’t bother opening his eyes until he hears Levi’s belt buckle being undone. He does sit up then, taking the food to watch over it while Levi undressed himself, slipping into a clean set of briefs and a new shirt before joining Kenny on the bed.

They eat in comfortable quiet, occasionally snarking at the others expense. Levi steals a bite of his bread, Kenny steals a kiss for revenge. It’s soft and it’s comfortable.

Kenny should leave after they eat, should start the long journey back to wherever he was set up currently. Levi would have to get up early tomorrow, would need to swing right back into his schedule.

But Levi isn’t in the mood to be responsible right now, so he looks up at Kenny and reaches out with their bond and purrs _‘Stay’_.

So he does.

Levi falls asleep against his chest, listening to the rumbling croon in his alpha’s throat as Kenny traced his fingers across the scars on his legs, following the lines of where the leather had cut in and cut deep as he used the 3DMG gear.

He’ll leave tomorrow when Levi has to head out, and when he finally does get back, Traute will fix him with the knowing but blank look she always does and wait for him to lead.

And he’ll _hope_ like he does every time, that the next time he comes, he won’t have to leave.

 


	2. Date night [teen+]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The noise that leaves his mouth is pathetically needy even for his own standards, but he knows better than to be embarrassed when it comes to his mate, and he dismounts before his horse has even stopped completely, throwing himself into Kenny’s open arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its 6 am i will proof read this. later.

Levi rises early, far earlier than he usually does on his day off. A crack of light peers through the space of his curtains, showing the dawn light as he dresses himself. His binder is pulled onto aching limbs before he turns to the outfit he had selected the day before.

It was just a simple shirt and pants, casual clothes for his day off, but it was important to him regardless. He dresses himself unrushed, a nervous butterfly type of feeling in his chest.

He can feel the bubbled excitement return through the bond, his alpha is just as happy as he is.

He smiles to himself.

As he brushes his teeth the excitement starts to rush him and he speeds through it as quick as he can while still feeling satisfied with the job he’s done. Then he gathers his bag and is out the door of his room, pausing only to lock the door behind him before taking off for the stables.

His mare is already up and waiting for him, seemingly picking up on her rider’s excitement. She makes no fuss as he presses the apple against her muzzle. She eats quietly while he pulls her saddle on, checking the straps and throwing his bag over her back and leading her by the reins out of the stable.

Most of the other horses are still asleep and pay them no mind as they walk past, leaving Levi to mount his horse and take off for his destination. He doesn’t know where he’s going yet, only knows that Kenny had picked it out. It was supposed to be somewhere far off in the woods, where no one in the world would see their hero, Humanity’s Strongest, mingling with the infamous serial killer Kenny the Ripper.

They were an interesting couple, but they worked.

He follows the bond through valleys and into the woods, his blood boiling under his skin until he catches his scent on the breeze and Levi  _ knows _ before urging his mare into a hard gallop, leaping over fallen logs and through the underbrush before breaking into a small clearing where his  _ alpha _ is waiting for him.

The noise that leaves his mouth is pathetically needy even for his own standards, but he knows better than to be embarrassed when it comes to his mate, and he dismounts before his horse has even stopped completely, throwing himself into Kenny’s open arms.

They both cling to each other, with Kenny mouthing his mating mark and Levi nuzzling into the dip under his chin, breathing in his scent like it is the last chance he’ll ever get. Their lips meet and it is simultaneously too much and not enough; never enough.

It feels like too soon when they pull back from each other, eyes meeting for the briefest second before they are diving back in, kissing with all tongue and teeth. A moan slips from Levi’s lips and like that they remember where they are. Although they doubt anyone would seek them out in the woods, it is still too close to civilization for their comfort.

They pull away from each other reluctantly, with Levi stepping back away from him and almost bumping into his horse in the process. It doesn’t matter to him right now, nothing else matters except for his alpha and the rest of the day they can spend together.

They’ve still got a distance to travel, and despite his protectiveness for his mare, he lets Kenny mount her first, instead choosing to pull himself up into the saddle behind him and wrap his arms around his waist. He can practically feel Kenny smile through their bond, and though they haven’t said a word yet, neither of them need to speak to understand what the other was saying.

Levi nuzzles into his back and sighs happily, purring loud and hard before letting his eyes flutter shut.

He relaxes completely against him, listening to Kenny as he started to hum, eventually picking up into singing while the sway of the horse rocked him back and forth. They have a ways to go before they get there anyways.

* * *

When Levi wakes up, he tightens his grip around him and blinks open his eyes, drawing in a breath at the scenery around them. They’re walking alongside a shallow stream, following the glistening water deeper into the heart of the woods. Something about the woods is always more enchanted the further you go into it.

When Levi was younger, Kenny had told him fables, about creatures that lurked deep within the woods, under the water or in the hollows of trees. One he remembers fondly is the story of a monster that took the shape of a horse to drag its victims underwater to devour them. 

As an adult he knows better. Although there may not be fae and monsters lurking in the woods, the forest deserved their respect. It was mystical and it was pretty; a perfectly secluded place for two lovers to meet unknown.

Swallowing, “What is it?” Levi asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Just something simple. Isn’t too fancy.”

Levi lets his eyes droop again as Kenny resumes humming changing after the next note he had abandoned earlier.

It’s not much farther now, Levi’s sure, watching the stream turn to a river, wider and wider until it split into a pond. His breath catches in his throat, staring at the clearing in front of them. The sun slips through gaps in the leaves above them, casting rays of light that catch on the bedewed petals of the flowerbeds surrounding them, painting the forest colors of reds, pinks, and violets.

Kenny slows the horse to a stop, both of them taking a moment to just look around and enjoy the view before Kenny slides off, taking the bag Levi had brought with him.

“How did you find this place?”

“Friend of a friend.”

Kenny, vague as always, gingerly set the bag to the side, reaching out to instead help Levi down off his horse.

“What a gentleman.”

“Only for you, kitten.”

Levi snorted, allowing the alpha to help him down and stretching out his legs. Kenny still holds onto the reins of Levi’s horse, until Levi waves him off.

“She can wander, she knows my voice.”

“Levi,” Kenny began, lips twitching into a shit-eating grin, “are you cheating on me with a horse?”

He paused.

“Don’t make me push you into that damn river.”

* * *

While Levi spends time looking for a log or a rock to sit on, Kenny is content to sit back into the dirt, letting out a groan as he relaxed.

“You’re going to get dirt all over your ass.”

“C’mon Lev, sit.”

“I’ll get dirt all over  _ my _ ass.”

Kenny smiles at him, an attractive,  _ suggestive _ smile, and rubs his lap with his hands.

“Then sit here.”

Levi stops, giving him a look that although might seem like its stern, all Kenny has to do is croon before a pleased omega is sliding into his lap, taking his rightful place there. Levi purrs up a storm in his lap, food momentarily forgotten in favor of his alpha and his wandering hands.

They have fucked in dirtier places years and years ago when the underground still caged him, but Levi still raises a fuss at the dirt everywhere. However his alpha knows where and how to touch to turn his complaints into begs for more.

Afterwards his alpha, ever a bad influence, manages to get him into the pond, washing the sweat from their skin and other more innapropriate fluids. Kenny’s neck is bleeding where Levi bit too hard over his bonding mark to muffle his scream and Levi knows damn well he’ll be sore tomorrow but it’s all so worth it. 

He’s dreamed of this before, never too much-he knows it’s a danger to want what he cannot have-but he has dreamed of it. He has dreamed of being able to step outside with his mate and just be, no past, no fancy titles, just mates. He wants the domesticity but with a war all around him he cannot hope for it. Here is perfect.

They doze against each other for the remainder of the day, eating dried rations Levi had packed half dressed and warm under the glimpses of sunlight. It’s so peaceful  Levi doesn’t know what to make of it. The underground was loud and bustling, and the headquarters at night creak and groan. To sit here, listening to the soft call of birds and the gentle running water is surreal.

He loves it.

They’re out well into the evening before they finally get redressed, teasing and poking at each other all the while. He knows Kenny pushes the horse slower on the way back, but it still feels like the ride back to where they met earlier that day was just a minute or two long. He doesn’t want to part with him, he never does, but they both have obligations. Maybe one day they’ll be able to just live as alpha and omega, but that day is not today.

Levi takes the reins from him when he steps down, there is a town not far from here and he knows they have carriages for Kenny to hitch a ride back up to Sina. Kenny catches his hand when they touch, leaning down to press a kiss to the back of his hand before Levi drags him up into a burning kiss.

They part with yearning touches and longing glances before Levi forces his mare into a gallop, knowing that if he were to look back and see Kenny watching him go, he’d be unable to leave.

He rides and he rides until the soft glow of the forest and Kenny’s hands on his body return to just a memory, slowing to a gentle pace and allowing his mare to go as she pleased the rest of the ride home.

When he gets back he takes extra care when putting his mare up in her stall, petting and whispering to her all the while, before leaving her to her business and heading inside. To his surprise, the mess hall is not unoccupied as it normally is this time of night. Instead he finds Petra, swaying her leg and reading by candlelight. 

She doesn’t look up until he gets closer, breathing in the smell of iron and smoke.

“Did you have a nice day off, Captain?” She smiles at him, eyes dancing in the candlelight. Of course another alpha would pick up the scent of his on him.

There are times he forgets that he doesn’t need to be so guarded around his own squad.

“Yes,” He replied, stepping past her to continue to the hallways. “Yes I did.”


	3. gunfire [teen+]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi finds him in the dark, but all Kenny sees is light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> their story does involve canon divergence so,  
> marley - doesnt exist  
> not on an island  
> government is a fuck  
> and squad levi lived

Levi finds him in the dark, blending into the shadows of buildings and cobble so late in the night that no one but demons and hellions would dare be caught out. Kenny had found him years before, shrouded in darkness surrounded by the taint of death, it only makes sense for Levi to find him in the same shade.

Too much has happened in too short of a time, the revelation of where titans come from, the serums, the very fact that the monarchy itself has been turning its own citizens into titans for years now. There is so much to be done still, overthrowing the government, stopping the production, finding  _ any _ way to change the corrupted back into humans, Erwin’s plan. He knows now, why the Ackerman clan was near wiped out, knows why his mother never told him his surname when she still breathed. Levi knows that anyone bearing the name Ackerman are neither lucky nor blessed. Of course they would wind up on opposing sides of history.

The Survey Corps versus the government, omega versus alpha, except not really. Kenny hates Rod, has made that clear in the few times Levi has heard him mention him. He’s in it for Uri, much like Levi is in it for Erwin. It would have been easier on both of them, Levi thinks, for Kenny to have bonded Uri and Levi to have bonded with Erwin. Their bond to their liege ties their hands often, has thrown Levi into peril and Kenny into despair, and it will do so tomorrow as well.

Levi finds him in the dark, but all Kenny sees is light.

He doesn’t know who runs to who, but it doesn’t matter when Kenny is pressed against him, holding him tight and nuzzling into his hair. The weight of the world, planted firmly on his shoulders, lightens in comparison to the pure feeling of safety that wraps around him in time with his alpha’s scent.

Tomorrow will be hell, but it’s not tomorrow yet, so for now they can stay. He can feel Kenny’s lips against the top of his head and Levi can’t resist pulling him down, shifting onto his toes to press his lips up against Kenny’s. He can feel how tense Kenny is against him, energy coiled in his muscles leaving him jittery. He’s sure he feels the same.

They had talked about tomorrow extensively, plans, where Kenny was taking Eren and Historia, what would happen on that rooftop, they had played it off well, kept calm during the discussion. But Kenny shakes and Levi knows he is terrified.

It goes against every instinct the alpha has, against everything he had fought for up until now. Tomorrow Levi would be taking his and Hanji’s squad and trailing after the cart.

Tomorrow Kenny was going to try to kill him.

Kenny shudders a breath against him and Levi pulls back, tasting iron and whiskey on his lips when his tongue pokes out to wetten them.

“Is everything ready for tomorrow?”

His voice sounds foreign to his own ears, focused moreso on watching Kenny’s adam’s apple while he swallowed.

“Ready as it’ll ever be, you?”

“We’re ready.”

Levi’s grip tightens, grabbing fistfuls of the fabric of Kenny’s overcoat.

“My squad, you remember what they look like?”

“‘Course I do”

His squad, flashes come to his mind, of blood and gore surrounded by a forest of green. He can still barely believe all four of them survived what Annie had done to them. Kenny knows how important they are to him, would never kill them, but he can’t control his men without giving them both away. He knows soldiers are going to die tomorrow, knows it’s not fair, but he can’t change it.

“It’ll be fine, everything will work itself out.”

It’s not a lie, but he doesn’t know if it’s the truth either.

_ “Levi.” _ Kenny gasps, voice teetering on the brink of insanity, shaking against his mate.  _ “Don’t let me kill you.” _

Large hands find his face and Levi allows them to tilt his gaze upwards, staring into the eyes of his mate. Kenny’s thumb strokes circles against the skin of his cheeks, past him he can see only the darkness of the sky, absent of stars. This situation, absent of sanity-absent of hope.

There is a tremble in his hands and Kenny is so so scared. Levi is too.

“I won’t.”

_ “Levi.”  _ His mate  _ begs _ , holding him so fondly and so softly. When Levi was younger he was sure, sure that Kenny was strong, sure that he was infallible. He knows that was how Kenny presented himself, nothing can hurt you if you don’t feel anything. And Levi had wrecked that, had stepped into his life and destroyed every barrier put in place to protect himself, had crossed the distance he had put between himself in the world and held him until Kenny fell to pieces in his arms.

Still, Kenny had loved him for it, and it shakes Levi to his very core, that he could bring this man to his knees and he would look at him still, haunted and fond, like he loved Levi for the destruction he left in his wake.

_ “Don’t let me kill you.” _

His mind flashes, chasing ribbons of crimson in the breeze and a wet squelch he’s heard time and time again from the maws of titans. A part of him wonders what Kenny would do, should Levi freeze and the bullet miss-or find-it’s mark. He chases the image from his mind, pulling Kenny down again to kiss him, wishing that he could kill the demons in his mate’s mind as easily as he killed titans.

“You  _ won’t _ .” He stresses, holding him tighter. If something does happen tomorrow, if this is their last night, he doesn’t want to end it like this.

“When this is over,” There is no room for ‘if’, no room for ‘maybe’.  _ “when _ this is over, lets leave.”

Already, Kenny is searching. “Where would we go?”

“Somewhere,” He breathes, mind spinning. “Anywhere, take me anywhere. I don’t care where we go as long as I’m with you.”

Levi knows better than to want what he cannot have, knows better than to imagine a world where the walls open to reveal only the expanse of the world-theirs to explore.

“The ocean,” Erwin had told him about it, an endless expanse of salt and blue. “I want to see the ocean.”

“The ocean.” Kenny echoes, trying to picture it for himself, trying to picture a world where they could go there.

“I want to settle down, I want to stop fighting, I want--” His voice pitches just a bit higher and the drop in his stomach has him reeling with  _ fear _ and they have spent all this time worrying about Levi dying, he’s barely had the time to think about  _ Kenny _ dying. His bond burns and sings a steady chorus of  _ ‘no, no, no’  _ and he yanks his mind to other things because he  _ cannot _ think about that.

He is humanity’s strongest soldier, Erwin’s right hand man, but he is still human-still an omega. “I want a family.”

Kenny shivers against him and makes a noise so desperate it has his instincts keening in response, taking Kenny by the wrists and moving his hands so that his arms wrapped around him. Levi presses closer and wraps his own arms around him, clutching the fabric of his back to try and steady himself. Like that, he lets his own mind destroy him.

Tomorrow the sun beats down against him, feeling the tile of the roof under him as he stares after the carriage. His bond flutters in time with his heartbeat, admitting “he’s my mate” to a person dead not 10 seconds later.

The crack of gunfire has his blood roaring in his ears, flashes of begging and the night before, jerking him aside as the chimney explodes behind him, sending shrapnel everywhere. His body shakes but his hands are steady as the whirr of gear buzzes like flies.

He can smell blood and brain matter and tastes the beads of his sweat against his tongue, looking down the barrel of his mate’s gun, his trigger locks into a blade and he screams.


End file.
